Eight candidates in running for four Auburn Hills City Council seats

Two incumbents and six challengers are in the running for four city council seats in Auburn Hills this November.

Four seats are available, three of which have four-year terms. The person who receives the fourth-highest number of votes will receive a two-year term.

Incumbents Robert Kittle and Henry Knight are hoping to keep their seats on the council.
Kittle, 54, owner of local business Munetrix, LLC, holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

He said the biggest issue Auburn Hills faces as a community is the management of its services while undergoing tremendous growth — and balancing the “euphoria of economic growth” with the incremental burden it will eventually put on the city’s police, fire, roads and infrastructure.

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If re-elected, he says he hopes to “help the two new councilpersons that will be elected in November accelerate their learning curve so they can be as effective as possible in the least amount of time.”

Knight, 82, a retired industrial executive with a master of science in engineering, said the community’s biggest issue is its need to remain a growing, financially sound and age-inclusive city keeping its small town atmosphere.

If re-elected, Knight said he would “continue to work effectively with the other council members to update our five-year plan to continue our planned growth in all areas and make wise decisions to implement.”

Candidates Thomas Coolman, Ryan McDonald , VeRonica Lynn Mitchell , Stuart K. Jason , John Burmeister and Bob Gray are in the running for the four open seats, as well.

Coolman, a graduate of Novi High School and a sales manager for Citi Roofing Company, said the biggest issues in Auburn Hills are public safety and fiscal responsibility.

If elected, Coolman said he’d like to continue bringing jobs into Auburn Hills.

“I would like to see our citizens working here, in Auburn Hills, not with just a paycheck, but with a good paycheck,” he said. “We should be able to find the American dream in our own back yard.”

McDonald, 46, a Clawson police officer with a bachelor’s degree, said the biggest issue in Auburn Hills is the maintenance of the city’s competitive and business-friendly community.

If elected, he said he will work to “provide the resources for our police and fire departments. I will maintain strong senior citizen and recreational programs. I will support a sound fiscal budget and accountability.”

Mitchell, 43, an advanced vehicle development engineer for GM with an executive MBA and bachelor’s in chemical engineering as well as numerous post-grad certifications, is a current Auburn Hills Public Library board member and said the biggest issue in the community is maintaining the city’s services in the face of declining property tax revenues.

If elected, she said she’d promote growth in the area.

“I would love to see Auburn Hills be showcased as the national benchmark for providing community services to its residents,” she said. “A community designed to accommodate the needs of seniors encompasses services that benefit residents of all ages.”

Jason, 32, a cable splicer with some education from Community College of the Air Force, said the biggest issue in facing Auburn Hills this election is the citizens taking a back seat to big business.
If elected, he said “we must put more of a focus on the residents that make Auburn HIlls a community, not just a city. I hope to bring this community together so we can be a destination city to live, work and play.”

Burmeister, 52, a retired fire chief from the Auburn Hills Fire Department with an associate’s degree, said the biggest issue this election is maintaining the services the city provides to residents.

If elected, he said he will “actively support and research areas where we can share services, capitol purchases, and bidding processes with other communities. I will work on dropping barriers between communities that may prevent this from occurring.”

Gray, 58, holds a bachelor’s degree and said the biggest issue facing Auburn Hills this election is the economy. Gray said that if elected, he hopes to keep Auburn Hills and its schools from facing the same fate as neighboring Pontiac.

“We must protect Auburn Hills from EFMs,” he said. “We must not let our schools go down the same road as Pontiac. I will protect our level of services while not raising taxes."